1895, Berlin January 11, 1895. Friday‘Cosima tall, bony, and majestic. The black garments and the black peakd bonnet go well with het white hair. She offers you her hand to kiss, in the short black kid glove, with a gesture that would suit a queen, but it’s an indication of her genuine dignity and importance that you never have the impression she is striking a pose.’

Cosima helemaal links met op haar schoot zoon Siegfried

1897, Bayreuth, July 20, 1897. Tuesday‘Soirée in Wahfried.Only about fifty to sixty people but among them the queen of Würtemberg. Cosima in black with a sort of hat and a black gauze veil, covering her up on her eyebrows. Underneath the fabulously energetic face with the strong facial skeleton, the cheeck- and nose bones looking like granit. After each piece she thanked the players very loudly, with het somewhat gruff voice that you could hear even in the other rooms. Curious that this woman has played a role to the great composer’s room looks like that of a young man until you notice the hairdo, and she looks exactly like that today, only more pronounced, with stronger light and shadows contrasts. Among all of her guests, men and women, she looks as if she were of a different race: all bones and strenght of will. I asked Siegfriend (haar zoon, gestorven in hetzelfde jaar als zijn moeder) about a portrait for Pan (tijdschrift dat Kessler mee redigeerde) perhaps by Whistler but he refused to even speak about it. She has a kind of idiosyncrasy that is opposed t anyone even speaking about her.Bayreuth has completely the character of a little court with the Wagners as petty princelings. It is worth noting how this atmosphere makes itself felt in everything from the lackey-like humiliations in order to be invited to Wahnfried to the portraits in the taverns and barbershops.’

En een dag later zelfde plaats:‘…The life of Cosima is an example of Nietzschean morality in action; he may even haved learned a lot from her. Psychologically that would explain why she opposed this worldview so sharply when she found it in theoretical form. She may have been afraid, perhaps unconsciously, that one would condemn her along with the theory.’